Category: Boasts

I first met Ulrich the Half-dane when he was on Ragnvaldr’s King’s Champion’s team, during Ragnvaldr & Arabella’s third reign. Ragnvaldr called him his Space Marine. He has since become a good friend, and I have written other scrolls and ceremonies for him, including when he recently became the second Baron of Shadowed Stars.

Ulrich was the fourth person put on vigil for William and Isolde’s reign, and the first to be put on vigil for Chivalry. We had almost a month to prepare, and Ulrich had some very specific desires in his ceremony. The first was a Viking-style boast, based off his persona story.

Crown Tournament is always a special time in a reign. Between Coronation and Crown, the only royalty in the Kingdom are the King and Queen. The kingdom belongs to Them and Them alone.

The Kingdom A&S Competition and Crown Tournament of William and Isolde was a fun one, with many standout moments for me both personally, and from the perspective of being on Staff. I really slipped into a role of Court Management at this event, in addition to having active roles in both the running of the A&S Competition and being the co-Autocrat of the event, specifically for the Sunday Crown Tournament.

Colin O’Flannery’s Court Baroncy was the last piece of business in the morning court. We all had a few hours to catch our breath, and then it was time to jump into the deep end.

William and Isolde had already picked soon-to-become Mistress Lucia to be their Kingdom Bard, but she wasn’t going to take the position till crown, so I offered to write a boast.

A processional boast is a peculiar thing. It needs to be long enough that it doesn’t leave the assorted champions and attendants, but short enough that it doesn’t leave the King and Queen standing while you finish. This site also had a fairly long space to process in (although not as long as for Crown three weeks hence). I think it ended up being timed ok.

Those who know William know that he’s a traditionalist, so it was very important to him that we use some of the older references that have, in recent years, fallen out of favor. The two that have stand out the most are Baron Under the Mountain and Protector of the Inland Seas.

This past weekend, at the Crown Tournament of William and Isolde, my friend Ulrich Halfdan Ulfsson was elevated to the Order of Chivalry. I was honored to be asked to write his ceremony and all the poetry that went with it. This post is specifically about the boast with which he was heralded into court once his Knight, Sir Denewulf, had begged the boon.

PROTECT US, OH LORD, FROM THE FURY OF THE NORTHMEN!

On comes Ulrich / Into the long-hall
Beloved of Brianna / Un-Belt no more
Hazel eyed hunter / Rises the half-dane
Whither the white belt / Where is gold-chain?
Crossing the coastline / came he to the village
Of Brianna sky-eye / Brought him to love
Smoldering cinders / see ships burned on shore
For Here is the homeland / of Ulrich’s heart
Black Raven reaver / in righteous fury
Stopped Eastern Army / With bold action
He gladly follows / Tyr, god of glory
Learned of the law / lord of the swords
See now the squire / sever his bond
Collar of commitment / returned to comrade
New bond of brotherhood / sought in a boon
New in the knowledge / the accolade, Knight.

Ulrich’s persona story is that as a half-danish viking warrior, he came to Shadowed Stars as a raider, but fell in love with the daughter of a chieftain – Brianna – and burned his ships on the shore as a sign of his devotion to her. Brianna features twice here: once as Ulrich is her beloved, and once as sky-eye; her eyes are blue.

The Black Raven refers to the Raven Company, the fighting household that Ulrich commands.

In the next post, I’ll talk about the scroll text that I wrote (that has yet to be actually written into a real scroll).